Development kicking up a stink in town
FOUL SMELLS FROM COALITE SITE HANGING OVER HOMES
DERBYSHIRE residents complaining about a revolting mystery stench around their homes now have an answer to where the foul pong is coming from.
The developer working on the site of a former coking plant near Bolsover has admitted that some odours might be released into the atmosphere as construction work takes place.
The former Coalite site is currently in the process of being transformed into a new Peak Pharmacy warehouse by St Francis Group.
However, a number of people have posted on one of the town’s Facebook groups complaining about a nasty smell from the area.
In the Bolsover Opinions Facebook group, Heidi Toyn was the first person to detect the new smell, asking: “Drove down past the tip today, what is in that ground that they’re stirring up on the old Coalite site? It smells absolutely gross.”
The post generated 90 comments before having responses turned off by the Facebook group administrators.
In one of the responses, Andrew Jackson said: “It is Coalite. They scraped a piece of ground yesterday, about 10 feet wide by about 10 foot long and four inches deep, and that was enough to trigger that foul smell again.” Sue Clark added: “The smell is driving me insane. Horrible toxic odour engulfed everywhere, especially with the wind. Why can’t they leave it be? “The land will be contaminated for many hundreds of years. I feel sorry for the workers who will build this and those who will work in the warehouse, many not knowing the history of the land.” The site has been vacant since 2004 with various ideas tabled for what to do with it, including building hundreds of houses and a business park. A spokesperson for St Francis Group said: “The site has been successfully remediated to specific risk-based remediation targets agreed with the Environment Agency and the relevant local authority’s contaminated land officers. “Significant ground improvement work has gone into the remediation of this important employment site since 2015, which has resulted in contamination concentrations being reduced by x10,000 to safe concentration levels agreed with regulators. “However, soil/ground odour may still potentially be detected when the ground is disturbed during future construction works.
“This odour poses no risk to public health and will reduce again once the ground is sealed.”
The smell is driving me insane. Horrible toxic odour engulfed everywhere
Resident Sue Clark